Find Your Fix- Sport Dog Scent Detection Podcast- ON THE ROAD AGAIN !
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THE NEXT EPISODE OF THE K9 SCENT FIX PODCAST is on the ROAD !!! Join us WEDNESDAY JUNE 4 2025 live at 7 PM MT as we TRAVEL TO TRIAL ! LIVE from wherever we are, we will chat about Trial Travel and all its ups and downs and fun adventures ! Well mostly fun, some trips may be more adventure than others, but GOOD STORIES to share, nonetheless.
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TOPIC- ON THE ROAD AGAIN TO TRIALS - TIPS FROM THE ROAD
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Find Your Fix- Sport Dog Scent Detection Podcast- ON THE ROAD AGAIN !
Roads Less Traveled: The Hidden Journey Behind K9 Scent Fix - On the Road
Seasoned dog competitors share their most memorable and hair-raising travel stories from years on the road attending trials and competitions. The podcast hosts and guests exchange tales of adventure, mishap, and the unexpected challenges that come with traveling alongside canine athletes.
• Ensuring dog safety in unfamiliar environments, including stories of dogs chasing wildlife
• Strange and memorable accommodations from the "nun house" to remote wilderness lodgings
• Weather emergencies including taking shelter from a tornado at a police station
• Vehicle mishaps like flat trailer tires and doors threatening to fly off on highways
• Practical travel tips for dog handlers including extra supplies and rental car strategies
• Developing relationships with pet-friendly accommodations and explaining your needs
• The challenges of maintaining dog routines while traveling for competitions
• How competing away from home builds camaraderie within the dog sport community
Join us next time when we'll dive into the topic of imposter syndrome in dog sports!
Hey everybody, welcome to our podcast. We're going to talk a little bit tonight about on the road again. So part of the reason why we needed to do that. We have imposters still planned for later this month, but both Alex and I are basically on the road for the next almost three weeks. I've got some time frames in between the weekends, uh, where I'll be home, versus alex is literally on the road for about 21 days. She'll be joining us, uh, later, hopefully in the podcast she was going to be getting to her hotel a little bit later.
Speaker 1:So part of it, right out of the box, is that, um, we're doing this for one of the first times off of my laptop and I am in an Airbnb somewhere in Pueblo, colorado. Mountain Dogs is hosting our Summit and Elite trial this weekend. Super excited to do that, and this is kind of right at the outskirts of my number of hours to travel to host a trial, which is right at four. I can get up into Laramie within three and a half and then trying to go from the Front Range to Grand Junction. I live in the middle of Colorado, so it's about that time. The only one that exceeds that is, of course, the Hornet, the USS Hornet. But that trial is a mock trial, so it's not a sanctioned NACSW trial.
Speaker 1:So, just talking about getting on the road and being on the road and what are some of the fun stories we have, as well as the challenges. So I think that, even starting out right away, you just kind of have to make that list of and I think way back when we did a episode about preparing for trial and what your list was, and Alex actually said she has like a permanent list, she keeps by the door and then she checks it off. Well, I don't do that, I just sort of wing it right, like everything that goes in the truck is either in the truck or in the trailer or just stays in the same place. Come home, put it in the same place, repack it, blah, blah, blah. Well, I proceeded to make two very good casseroles for this weekend for our host crew, who are all staying at the Airbnb, and I very quickly forgot those in the freezer at home. So the husband's going to be very happy to have some very good eats for the whole weekend.
Speaker 1:So then let's just. I just want to talk about and I got Lydia Niederwerfer who's going to jump in on for us and give us some of her good stories to share as well. I think that some of the things when we travel we're thinking mostly and often concentrating on the safety of our dogs, so trying to keep them on leash most of the time. What do we do if they're not on leash? So, lydia, why don't you tell us a little bit you can get off mute. Tell us a little bit about that story. And that was even still in Colorado, but it certainly wasn't at home.
Speaker 2:Well, we got into the habit of the day before a trial we'd take the dogs for someplace to hike or to just run around and relax. And after being in the vehicle for so many hours, well, we were out in the field and everything was going great until my two English cockers scared up a jackrabbit. They were headed back and they scared up a jackrabbit and she was gone Out of sight way far away and we had no clue where she went. So I panicked. Kevin's like, oh, she'll come back. I was like I don't see her. So the minute we start trying to retrace her steps, we, sooner than took two steps and we look and she's right behind us. She ended up getting back so fast and where she went. But she actually did come back. So I, I I'm glad she did, because I was thinking, oh my gosh, I lost my dog and I, you know, I'm going to have to call Jill to let her know I'm not going to make it to the trial because I lost my dog.
Speaker 1:Well, I had Laura Bush and Chris Bush coming in. Laura was the CO, I think, or Chris might have been either way, and the other one was a judge Coming in to Meeker and I got an Airbnb that was big enough for all of us, right, and they agreed to come and stay and it was, I think, even a six-bedroom or something, a huge lodge, and had this downstairs to it that had all these bunk rooms, blah, blah, blah. So we're driving out to the place and we are on not only a country dirt road, but it's a two track and it's a two track with a hump in the middle and weeds that have or you know, certainly were in the bushes that are up over, you know, higher than the windows on the truck. And I'm driving the trailer and there's no way I could turn around if we had to. Jean Bao was with us as well and she said she was even thinking my God, you could die back here, like somebody could kill you, and they would never come to find you way back here. It was that far back in the wilderness of Meeker. When we got there, it turns out to be. The house on the outside wasn't all that gorgeous. Inside it was wonderful, turned out to be a great secluded place that we could just chill at night. But, dang, I don't think I'll ever go back there because of the way that you had to get there was really, really interesting. So that kind of goes on.
Speaker 1:The top of my list is some of these Airbnbs or VRBOs that we've chosen to stay in, so sometimes we don't. I think we started doing this probably maybe three or four years ago, where we started getting a group of us together to stay all in the same lodging instead of doing hotels. One, as the host who's paying those bills it's cheaper for me. Two, the camaraderie and the ability to work into the night on flow or whatever you have to work on is easier to do when you're all together, and then just having a chance to hang out with your friends is really, really fun. So we started to kind of do that. Well, and actually Lawton and I Lawton Bishop, who's one of our judges and also really helps out with a lot of mountain dogs we actually went to trial so I don't have a host hat on, I'm a competitor at this point in time Down to Benson, arizona, to participate in that NW3 down there, and we rented this place and Marcella Wilson actually rented it the year before and all I got to do is call it the nun N-U-N, as in a Catholic sister, a nun, the nun house, and she will totally remember what it's about.
Speaker 1:It was the strangest place we have ever stayed. It wasn't dirty, it was a double wide trailer, but it had little statues and little displays of sisters doing all sorts of things like playing basketball, playing football all over the house. There were a ton of them, very, very strange, and that is one that went on our list. Never again do we stay there. Got a great one. Hey guys, I want to just welcome in Alex. She just got into her motel room or hotel room or whatever it is. She's somewhere on the road and I have no idea where she is, so let's have her chime in and tell us where the heck are you, hello I just got to my lakinta and I'm in st george utah on my way to montana ah, yay, and where?
Speaker 3:are you in montana uh, the flat coat specialty is uh starts with the field stuff on saturday and then we go all the way till friday and then I'm judging in Colorado for the next weekend and yeah, it's a long trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah so, and then from there you're driving from, yeah, you're driving from Colorado to Minnesota yeah, it's gonna be a fun time. We'll have a NACSW trial yeah yeah, so I'm gonna be COing and and I'm uh gonna be supervising I'm the SEO of Alex and it's kind of a fun trade-off because, um, for AKC, she's been kind of mentoring me. When I walk up to her and go, I have no idea what we're doing. What are you?
Speaker 2:doing. Why are you?
Speaker 1:doing that? What? Okay, okay, whatever, yeah, still learning. And she's already got a. She's already got any CSW wrapped up in a bow. I mean it's like we're getting there, yeah.
Speaker 3:But you know, what's funny about that story is I looked on the list they send out a list of what ones can you try and get a supervisor for and learn and I'm like, okay, this this location works, this this date works, it's got an element, perfect, let's do it. And I applied for it.
Speaker 1:and then I looked at who the CO was and I was like, oh, it's chill yeah, and you're going to be doing a NW2 and an element, yeah, l1c, yeah, yeah, so, yeah, yeah, and so what we were talking about and kevin was chiming in with lydia, as well as just some of those stories of I kind of got off on a tangent about the airbnbs or the vrbo's right and the scary ones, so, yeah, story about going to meeker way out in the bushes with the with the bushes.
Speaker 3:With the bushes.
Speaker 1:And how Jean Bao even said oh my God, where is this place? Somebody could get murdered and no one would know.
Speaker 3:Right, no, because there's no cell reception. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:And then I told the story about Latin and I get in the place, the nun house down in Texas, down in Benson, that Marcella Wilson has also gotten one year, and it has to be the top on our list of weirdness, right? Just weird vibe, right Didn't? I'm not going to say it was dangerous or scary or anything, because it was really. It was the gal's mother who had died during COVID. It was her, so it was a very nice, well-kept place, but it was weird.
Speaker 3:I had one this past weekend. It was the first time, so I think they had only one other Airbnb guest before we stayed there and it is a 1908 post office and they transferred it into like a house and somebody's mom used to live there and she had died. It wasn't clear if she died in the house or if she had died.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't ask that, you're right. Cause mom could have died in the house we were in as well.
Speaker 3:But we had some interesting interactions with the neighbor. So the neighbor came running over and there's packages taken and then returned, and free eggs it was. It was a very fun weekend, but it wasn't one that I would want to have stayed at by myself, if that makes sense, oh yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause that's often what happens with me, right? So, um, if it's myself and Zeke, I would not feel particularly safe. Yeah, myself and Zeke and Izzy and Izzy is a small dog, he's not a big dog. I feel very, very safe Because he's a little more protected. He is. He is a bike dog. He is a 45 pound or 40, 35, 35 pound little.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this weekend Zeke is very happy because he's with his favorite favorite girlfriend. Oh yeah, and he and Ellie are actually like acting like normal dogs yeah, he's not trying to you know what her constantly, yeah, yeah, and they're just hanging out and doing a really good job. So that's really fun, awesome, it's nice to hit that point, yeah, so we covered kind of places to stay. Oh, we also covered because lydia told her story about jesse taking off after rabbit. So you know there was one that I went to in Missouri.
Speaker 1:So, judy Harris, this is way back in the day and I think I was chasing Elite with Digger, and so Izzy and I and Digger went to Missouri. We stayed in motels at this point in time because I didn't really have folks that I traveled with at that distance, right, right. And so we went down to the Missouri River because both my, both of those dogs are major swimmers, love to swim, so I'm swimming. Both the dogs were really having a good time on the beach and it's it's a nice walk in on the river, right, so you don't like sink, it's not deep. Right, ducks came in and talk about.
Speaker 1:I understand what duck tollers do now and why they right, the ducks came in and they got Izzy's attention and Izzy just took off after him and I'm watching him swim away from the shore and I'm saying Izzy, come, izzy, come, you're going to get to a point where I cannot save you If you start to sink. You are too far out for me to get you, right. Yeah, he just kept going because, boy, these ducks were luring him out into the middle of the damn Missouri river. Yeah, I get digger and I get our frisbees, and I'm starting to say, like I'm jumping up and down on the beach and saying, oh, digger, you're so wonderful, you're so wonderful. Oh, digger, digger, let's have fun. Right, he's jealous. Finally, izzy looks up to see what Digger is doing and then swims back to shore. But I was convinced that that dog was going to end up in the middle of the Missouri River and I wasn't going to see him again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had that actually with one of my last flat coats. We were up in Canada on the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, and the river moves pretty quick. It's a big river and there was kids playing at the shore and the one kid lost her flip-flop. Well, it floats. So my retriever decided to retrieve the flip-flop, but the problem is that, yeah, you get transferred down the river and so we found her like half a kilometer down, going through the bush to try and get her back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she got the flip-flop, we were good, but again, I bet the kid was really happy that the dog went after the flip-flop, the dog didn't come off the leash again.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly so those are some hints. We did say we would give tips, yeah, basic tips that everybody's yeah, everybody's going. Oh, yeah, that's really important, guys. I really spent a lot of time to listen to this podcast so you could tell me to keep my dog on leash. But even if you have a dog that typically you can run off, you're going to be in areas where you know. You know you just may not be familiar with where they're going to be. In areas where you know and, uh, you know, you just may not be familiar with where they're going to go and how you're going to, how your recall is going to work and whether or not they're going to come back. So that's the other thing. You could get a gps collar, I guess, or one of the things, or something like that, so that you can, you know, see their location.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, yeah what all right, let's see. Um one thought for tips is check your airbnbs and hotels, which I did not do immediately as I walked in here. Um so, tana, I'm kind of trying to keep occupied because she's finding corners that are very interesting. Yes, not food that she shouldn't be eating yes, well, and you know what?
Speaker 1:that is kind of one of my pet peeves, because I've got a marker, right. Yeah, I've got two boy dogs that will mark, and when I stay in pet friendly motel rooms or even pet friendly airbnbs, man right and I really like it when there isn't carpet. This one actually has, you know, some of. I always call it linoleum. You can tell what generation it's, the pergola stuff Laminate, laminate. Okay, so it's laminate flooring, vinyl planking.
Speaker 3:Vinyl planking Right yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not tile. It's not tile that looks like wood and I like that better because obviously it can be kept cleaner and but then you'll still watch them sniff like the corner of the couches and stuff.
Speaker 1:yeah I still get like oh god, don't do that, yeah, yeah. And then some of the other things too when you travel is the potty thing. Oh my right, so many people at trial just lament over my dog hasn't pooped yet, my dog won't pee. Yeah, those kinds of things. So really working on that, I even at home put them on leash and walk them out and use my potty potty. Come on, let's potty potty, potty, potty, right, so that I can train them to be very accustomed to. That means kind of like, do it now. We've got places to go, people to see.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I try and do that at tips yeah, it's creating that on leash, off leash, yeah, buddy, because that can be hard. I know some people who can't stay at hotels because they need that off leash backyard oh, so here's one.
Speaker 1:Here's one of my pet peeves and you know you would think that I would just find a different gps mapping system, but I still use the one that's on my phone.
Speaker 1:So what is that? It's just, it's not even google map. Yeah, okay, it does not give me enough time when I'm supposed to turn prior to the turn, like if I use the navigation that's on the vehicle, I at least get the streets and the names of the streets coming up, because it'll, let's say, you know, it'll give you this big, long arrow. Oh, it's all that time and then it goes being a trailer. Yeah, scream on my break and poor line. She's always following me and I know she's sitting back there shaking her head going. Do you think she's going to make this turn?
Speaker 2:I bet she doesn't make this turn, okay.
Speaker 1:So we didn't make that turn yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this turn. I bet she doesn't make this turn. Okay, so we didn't make that turn. Yeah, yeah, I get that. So I like using google maps with the, like the aerial view, because it helps me see that. Oh, on the little map. Um, so that seems to help for me is that I use google maps, which, I have to say, ways is better at directions and changing if there's problems. I do like Waze better, but it doesn't have a picture from above, which makes it a little easier, especially when you're in an area you have no clue about.
Speaker 1:Well, how do you get the aerial view?
Speaker 3:I think it's when you pull it up on your phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Your places your timeline, your contributions, offline maps, your data and maps settings. Maybe huh?
Speaker 3:Just like if you look at Google Navigation commute scales. So if you just look at the maps, like you pull up Google whatever maps on your phone. There is a little square in the top right corner with a little underscore oh there it is oh, look at that Satell, that satellite, and train I like satellite satellite oh my god, that's like google earth. That's basically google earth exactly, and that makes it so much easier to see when those changes could happen. Sorry for who's listening, and my dogs are.
Speaker 1:Us as well. So what do you do you worry about when you're in the motel leaving your dogs? Do you leave the dogs in the room when you're not there? I don't.
Speaker 3:They go on a leash and back to the car which it's hard when it's hot out, because it's definitely warm right now.
Speaker 3:So they got pulled in when, if it was nice and cool out and it was like 60 degrees outside, I'd probably leave them in the car while I came in and did this. Um, but yeah, I don't normally leave them ever in the room. Their story. So who was it? Um, cara Schutzner, I believe. She was traveling somewhere and she couldn't get back into her Airbnb. I think she had her dogs with her, but she had nothing else. Everything else was in her Airbnb and the door had broken. Like the handle came off or something so kind of like warning stories. I've heard where I think it was Stacy, whose hotel room. She had her dog with her, thank goodness, but the hotel room, the whole lock mechanism, broke and so they couldn't get into her hotel room with all her stuff in it and they had to like, like, actually pull it off with sprues and everything in order to get into that room. Yeah, crazy craziness.
Speaker 1:So weather and weather can be really interesting. Right, we've got the stories of Kathy and I were down, we were trialing in Golden, golden, colorado, which is right on the west side of Denver, guys sitting up against the foothills. It's not a tornado alley, it is not a tornado area at all. And we were away from the trial site, we were getting I don't know groceries or something and we hear the tornado siren go off and Kathy's from Kansas, right, and I'm from Iowa and I'm from South Dakota. So we both very quickly recognized what that was. We looked at each other and went that was a tornado. You know siren. And we go, yeah, I guess it was. So we actually went into the gas station and asked Right, and said, was that a tornado? And of course it was so unusual. Right, I've been in Colorado for 30 years so it was very unusual in that area. And he said, yeah, I think it was. And I said, well, do you know where the closest tornado shelter is? And he said we don't have one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So we got in the car and we started to drive, and then it started to rain and then the hail came in. So it's the hail.
Speaker 1:And I was very used to this. When that hail turns to a wall, like literally, you can see where it is a wall I said it's going to start to turn the other way and start to spin. That's how the tornado gets created, right? So we were just driving, driving, driving, and Kathy was in the passenger seat I actually had to look out the driver's seat. I'm going like 25 miles we had our dogs with us too, by the way going like 25 miles an hour on a major highway. Going like 25 miles an hour on a major highway. I had to watch the median in the middle of the road to know where I was, because you couldn't see we're in the.
Speaker 1:Subaru and just driving like 25 miles an hour because we couldn't just like pull over and stay there, right? Oh no, we got to the Arapaho police station. It was all the whole front of it was all glass and I said let's just pull in here. And of course we left the dogs in the car and said let's run inside and see. You know what we can find out in terms of a shelter. We go inside and there's no one inside. There's a red phone hanging on the wall and Kathy says we got to go get the dogs. And where do you suppose we go? Maybe, maybe we should just go in the bathroom. And I said no one's here. It's, it must be, not even man. I said, oh God, no, there's cameras and they're watching us. Walk up to the phone and tell them what we want and why we're here. That would be a better thing to do.
Speaker 1:So we pick up the phone and said we're travelers, we're trying to get safety from the tornado warning and a lot of people are going off and we don't know what to do. So then all of a sudden, somebody talks back to us and it's over, like it comes over the speakers into the room right Through the phone, uh, go to the red door, it will click and you can come through. We're like, oh my god, who's that? Yeah, yeah, so we go and do that. And it was. And then the officers were actually bringing us back into the back end of the jail. Oh, we kept saying, oh my god, you know we're too close. We need to be somewhere better than in a glass walled building.
Speaker 1:Right, and I can say no, we'll go back into the, we'll watch it on the radar and we'll go back into the jails if it gets bad and you can go get your dogs. And we had actually parked our car underneath the shelter so it wasn't getting damaged. Well, that's good, yeah. And then they ended up saying okay, so we're having this cake because so-and-so is doing their retirement party, blah, blah, so you're welcome to have cake. So we actually ended up having lunch and cake with them and sat and watched the storm move through on a on a radar. Oh, that's funny. So that's a trial story uh, definitely.
Speaker 3:Oh geez, the worst hail I have ever seen was driving up to one of your files outside of landing utah and that hail was terrible and I had a rental car and so I was going. I hope this doesn't dent because that's going to be expensive. And I got lucky it wasn't denting, but it was mighty close yeah sure so lydia's offering us extra little tips as we go along here.
Speaker 1:She said any time, of course, and anytime you travel, take extra food and extra water. Yep, you know, and here I can't even remember to bring the food that's now sitting.
Speaker 3:Oh, she forgot it so so I once did a on the same. I once did a seminar up in Utah in winter. Shouldn't have agreed to it, but that's fine, it looked fine. I got my rental car to drive up and it was nice and hot in Phoenix, so they gave me a convertible Mustang. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But I went up to Utah and a huge storm rolled in. About a foot of snow came down and I got stuck Like I barely was able to get to my Airbnb that night and that next day I'm like I can't drive, I can't leave my Airbnb, and so I contacted my Airbnb host and she goes hey, I don't have anybody staying here tonight.
Speaker 3:Obviously, nobody can go anywhere. Um, if you want to stay the extra night, no problem, you can venmo me or cash. And I'm like I I don't do venmo, but I do have cash. So that has taught me to always have enough money for an extra night of a hotel or something there.
Speaker 3:You go, um, for cash, but then, because I couldn't leave, I couldn't get food, I couldn't get anything, I couldn't get anything else. So I was going through any of my supply. So I will always carry extra, like granola bars, extra oatmeal, just in case I'm stuck in the morning. Extra water, and so I always that extra scoop or two of food for the dogs. Luckily I didn't have dogs this time, but, holy smokes, I've never been stuck like that for an extra full day. And then it was still kind of iffy getting out that next morning, but at least the plows had gone through everywhere and I could get south enough. But yeah, always bring a little bit extra than you think you need, just in case, because you never know yeah, that includes like the gas too, right, like, yeah, exactly, I don't think your gas tank can go.
Speaker 1:Oops, let's pull over and get some gas. Yeah yeah, I like okay so if we're going to get on the stories of um uh vehicle mishaps, is this positively as I can.
Speaker 1:So they all. London's comment is they all have happy endings. Okay, good, good, good, that's a lot because, uh, she's an extremely positive person. She's's great to have, yes, as your sag wagon, which is in another vehicle following, right, yeah, the first one was a flat tire on the trailer. Yeah, so you're driving down I-70, and thankfully, at the time the truck my trailer app that goes with the truck truck measures the air pressure in each of your trailer tires.
Speaker 1:So a warning comes up right away on the dash that says trailer tire low. And I go, oh shit, yeah, wait until it's low to tell me. It should have said trailer tire losing air, because we would have stopped like three exits before. Yeah, exactly able to like pull into a gas station to do a repair.
Speaker 1:But it turns out it came on and we creeped our way from gosh, we weren't even probably very close to the rifle exit. Um, we were probably 20 miles. No, no, like five, maybe. Yeah, okay, like maybe five miles away from that exit. Yeah, make it to the exit and I'm getting out. At that point I said because it had started showing me low air pressure at and it's a tire that has 40 pounds per square inch psi. That's typically, and it came up at 21 and I was like that's not a slow leak, or you, it's going flat. So then by the time we pulled over it was 13 pounds and we got out and it was noticeably flat. Right, so to trade, to change the trailer tire, you have to pull down the back end of the trailer and we have the spare mounted in there.
Speaker 1:So, Cotton of course comes charging up to the truck and says, ok, get the tools, we're taking care of this, let's get this tire changed. I'm like, well, ok then, so we get the tire out, we get it all done. I have what's called a breaker bar Boy. I've learned about that. So if you really ever have to change tires, you want this, especially at my age. I'm sorry, we are over 60 climbing on set.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it is this bar that goes onto the lug nut or the socket that fits onto the lug nut, but it's long and it makes all the yeah the world for leveraging to try to get that thing off. So I had one of those. So we were using the breaker bar. We had everything off except one lug nut, one left to go and mine's working on it. And I said to her okay, so, and Kevin, don't be offended, I said so. If a man comes along and asks if we need help, what's the answer? And she said we got this. We don't need any stinking help, right? Just as she said that, two wonderful teenage ranch hands pulled over their red truck and came walking up to us just right behind us and said do you need help? Can we help you change that tire? And I said, dang, we're just about done. But if you'd like to take a turn at working on this last lug nut, we'd love to have you do that Right. Turn at working on this last lug nut, we'd love to have you do that, right? Yeah, all four of us the next 30 to 40 minutes to get that thing off. So that last lug nut was just a kick in the butt lug nut. Then we finally got it off, got it, got safely home, blah, blah, blah, and we had to replace lug um stems on the spare. We had to do a whole bunch of stuff. See if he's got to go out, will you? Sorry, zeke's kind of wandering around and he's already like pooped twice, which is unusual for him. So let's just we'll just get him. That's called distraction. We have a fenced in back Now. We're just saying so. So that was that one. The next one was the trailer door. So we're finding down i-70 again on our way to trial.
Speaker 1:And for those of you don't know, I have a utility trailer that has our entire um hosting supplies in it. The reason I do that is because I live rural and all of my supplies were basically being moused on that's a nice way to say it by living in my garage and I wanted my husband to build a hermetically sealed box that would prevent the mice from getting to the trial supplies. And he said why don't you just get a trailer? And I said, oh, that's a wonderful idea, right? Because then I don't have to unload the supplies and load them back up and we just keep the inventory as is. So we were driving down I-70.
Speaker 1:And all of a sudden I heard this and it is like sheet metal when sheet metal pops. I heard that noise and I look in my rearview mirror and I've got this weird thing hanging off the side of the trailer. So I call a lot and I said what the heck is that? And she said you need to pull over now. And I said no, what is that? She goes, you need to pull over now. I said no, what is that? She goes, just pull over. So I pull over and the whole fascia on the door had been caught by the wind and bent all the way down. Yeah, underneath that little piece of sheet metal is then an inch, maybe inch and a half, of styrofoam and then, after the styrofoam, is the next fascia in for the inside. So the door itself is not a stabilizing factor, it is like just a piece of sheet metal. Yeah, stabilizing factor, it is like just a piece of sheet metal.
Speaker 1:And we were so close to having it, was so close to having the whole door come off and, as Lottin's husband said, gary, he said, oh, you're going to do a yard sale of all the stuff that's in the trailer.
Speaker 1:Exactly, but it was so windy when we were even out trying to take care of this.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, we're looking at each other going, okay, what do we do now? Okay, so I've got clamps, and Latin keeps saying, oh, get the duct tape, get the duct tape. Well, I've only got, like I don't even have enough duct tape on my you know piece that I keep in there to go one wrap around the door, and I'm going I really duct tape is not going to hold this thing, right? So, of course, I have 50 million ratchet straps in that trailer and I went we're just going to ratchet the damn thing up, that's what we're going to do, and we're going to get to a Walmart and we're going to buy more ratchet straps. So I actually we actually that's how we made it, and you know it worked. And the saga continues, though. So now it's an $800 door to replace it. The poor husband, every time I go out, and he calls it Jill wear. Okay, it's not that something is worn out or takes on wear and tear, it's Jill wear.
Speaker 3:It's Jill wear.
Speaker 1:Yes, meaning I can pretty much destroy anything. Right, it's well loved. Yeah, there you go. So we order the new door. It comes in, he goes to install it, and he did it by specs, he did it by manufacturer, he did everything correct and because we're so rural, we had to have it shipped in by a special company who couldn't find her office. Anyway, right, yeah, so he goes to put in the door last weekend and it doesn't fit. Oh, it's too late. So we are fabricating the door. We are not sending it back to get a new door, we're just going to cut the damn thing down, right, yeah, oh. So so, kevin, the impact wrench, the impact rant wrench, made it worse. Some one of the guy's friends stopped in his truck and said hey, you guys, I've got my impact wrench and I'm going. All I can remember is hearing the impact wrench spin right and it just, oh, it killed the stem, totally killed the stem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we did think of that. But sometimes if you don't, if right, if you don't have the exact right size, it's just gonna drip it and screw it up anyway. So, okay, so now we're still back to. The door isn't fixed. So but at least he uh put enough screws all the way around so that that fascia is not going to move, that's for sure. It looks good. That's the story of the trailer door. Oh my gosh, it goes on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, it will hopefully have an ending one day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what other things have you? You've had a couple of things with your rental cars.
Speaker 3:Pretty good in general.
Speaker 1:Little things here and there Now explain that, because that's a good tip, yeah why you use a rental car instead of your own car.
Speaker 3:It's mainly my husband, right? He's like I don't want to put the miles on our cars, but it's a great option if you've got good deals, because a regular van is not cheap necessarily, but I can get a pretty good deal, um, and so I rent a normally a minivan, where if I don't need such a big vehicle, I can rent a smaller vehicle, but it keeps a lot of the wear and tear off my own vehicle, so I'm not paying for the gill wear, the gill wear off oh, um, oil changes, all that stuff I don't have to deal with because I just basically put it on the rental cars and I put in a lot of miles, um, so it was a thousand miles last weekend and I'm definitely gonna put more than that in the next week or two here or three by the time I get home.
Speaker 3:But yeah, the rental cars can be really helpful, but I also make sure I vacuum and clean them, wipe them down before I return them, develop a good relationship with my company that I rent from Enterprise. They're very good with me and they know that the vehicle comes back just as clean or cleaner than when I got it. Normally with the minivans there is a lot of food under the seats because I'm putting the seats down to put a crate in and you get to see all the mess that's in these vans.
Speaker 1:So now do you disclose to them that you're going to have a pet, because a lot of times they have no pet policy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, I do and they know what I do. They know that I do judging and they think it's really cool. I think it's developing that relationship that really can help, um, because they know that they can trust the vehicle comes back clean and if I was bouncing around different places I definitely wouldn't have the same. I used to rent from budget. Costco online has a great way of renting vehicles through their kind of their platform and it's easy to kind of price shop on that one and budget works through them and I was getting some pretty good deals with budget before.
Speaker 1:Wow, we'll have to check that out, Because I did work with one of our CEOs who's coming in for Leadville trying to find a car out of Denver, and it was. She was getting a price of like five, six hundred dollars for a compact on a DIA and I went what? So I got on and I do most of my stuff out of Travelocity and that's just really from years of just wanting to go to one place to do a lot of stuff and not have to like remember, you know, choice awards versus Hyatt versus whatever, whatever and we got the same thing for two or $300.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah. So with Costco you use your Costco card like the credit card typically to rent it and then you get like all the bonuses for that. But when I rent my cars I ended up getting a chase sapphire card. Uh, because it has auto insurance on it primary insurance, um, you have to deny and say, no, I don't accept your own insurance, right, like stuff, um, but it should go through the card before it goes through any sort of of your own insurance. So it's kind of one of the nice things about those cards and that's why I ended up getting the Chase Sapphire, which is kind of nice because now I've got all my travel on it and it's great points, and so now I get all these vacation or basically hotel rooms for my non-working weekends.
Speaker 1:Yay, well, and Lydia mentioned the pet fees. So that also brings to mind for me is the Airbnbs, because often they'll say pet friendly, but they only want two dogs, and then if you put in the host crew and we're all bringing, you know we've got four of us who are all bringing one dog.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Depending on the location and depending on the. Often it's that third party I hate to call it, but the third party vendor that's renting it right, because some of them have profiles on us and once you have a good profile then it kind of doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1:It makes it easier yeah but some of them all actually email them and say, hey, this is what we do. We do we host dog events. These are very well-trained dogs. Yes, you are, remember that. Yeah, and we may have more than two dogs, but they will be under supervision at all times, will never be left alone. I often tell them they'll be crated in the rooms if they're in the rooms by themselves, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:And that's a really good reputation now yeah. And I also say that they're often in the vehicles and we are long days at the trial and we're looking for somewhere quiet at the end of the day to relax and then get ready for the next day, and so it kind of sets the tone when you're requesting.
Speaker 1:And I think that Airbnbs and VRBOs houses you're going to have better luck with with that than in hotels, cause they just kind of whoever works the front desk is just going to apply the whatever their policy is, and there you go. Yeah yeah, I don't find getting breaks much from them, so so those are kind of all of our tips and tips and thoughts.
Speaker 1:I don't know if there are very many tips in there that you didn't already think of, but, yeah, that you can spend a lot of time on the road. I do know that back from um. Oh, so one of the things I did was I found one of our t-shirts from Estes Park, which was the first summit that was hosted, and it was September of 2018. So it's been seven years, yeah, seven years of doing. What year is it? Yeah, yeah, 25. Yeah, that's 15 minus eight, that's seven. Okay, got it. So that's kind of amazing too, right To think of how many summit years we've done.
Speaker 1:I'm a big proponent and everybody pretty much knows this of summit because I really think it's not so much that I'm trying to measure every dog to be this glorious first place summit dog, it's more just, it is what it is and it gives us a chance to really work on honing some skills with our dogs. So I really like to honor all of my handlers that enter and come to compete and that is my goal with my dog, you know get to that level so, um, so that's gonna be really fun because that starts, uh, on friday, uh, I think a day tomorrow to just sort of play around with our dogs and then get busy on friday. So that was pueblo colorado, so then, um, september or october will be the next one in cali and Nice.
Speaker 3:I wish I was coming. I do too.
Speaker 1:Not this year. Couldn't squeeze it in A little too big, all right. Well, you have safe travels from here until infinity. Yep, have a great time in Montana. That'll be wicked fun, right.
Speaker 3:Good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and then I'll see you. Actually, I'll see you maybe. So I still haven't gotten my entry Right, haven't gotten an entry confirmation yet. I think on one of them I was in a in a wait list. I haven't been able to figure this out at all, like how to enter? What do you do after you enter?
Speaker 1:yeah all that those of you don't know, I'm a very seasoned nacsw handler, I know it back and forth. But, man, you put me in a new environment and I'm like what? I don't know how to do this anyway. So, um, but I am going to be trying to leave rapid city that morning. So if it's an am, so right, you're not gonna get there. No, I can't. There's no way I can possibly get there until nine o'clock if I leave at 4 am. Yeah, they're probably more like 10 o'clock. Yeah, so right, but they can't have gone through the first by 10.
Speaker 1:They should be fine, yeah find it just roll in there and run the dog, right, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna communicate with the host. I'll see if that's okay, if they can put me at the bottom of the running order, and yeah, that's where we're at, and if that doesn't work, then I'll just do the afternoon one and we'll be done. You get another six second search.
Speaker 3:Yay, we got to get through his novice and then he can start playing for a little longer well, so, and latin, and I uh get to do the elite in pueblo on sunday.
Speaker 1:We have, so we're gonna focus on I'm focusing on slow the roll. I like it right, stealing those words from jenny slow the roll. And I like it Right, I'm stealing those words from Jenny slow the roll. And um, focusing on his uh, uh, what do I want to say? His close proximity, but not staying there too long, cause when he starts to look at me is when he's saying and why are we still standing here? We need to go. Yeah, that'll be fun, fun, it'll be fun, fun to measure where we are right.
Speaker 1:I want to get, I think, the last trial. I did a 79 point something. My goal is to have 80s and above, so we'll see point one. No, no, I just need a point one. Yeah, you don't care, you just want the cheese. Yeah, so so thanks everybody for joining us. I hope that was kind of fun to just listen to some chatter. Uh, we'll be back with I think we have the next one scheduled, at least. Uh, alex and I do for the 20. What is it sure? Huh, I'm sure you say sure, I don't know somewhere, I swear to god, do we have?
Speaker 1:it on the 23rd we may. Yeah, near the end of the month, yep, near the end of the month we'll put together another one and that one. We will jump on the imposter syndrome topic. So enjoy your nose work and hopefully you'll get out there and enjoy some searches with your dog. Thanks everybody.
